Automatic apparatus for sewing pockets on garments

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for sewing pockets on garments which includes a workholder nipper, a magnetic drive system for causing said nipper to move along a predetermined sewing contour, a doubleacting pneumatic cylinder connected to a support plate adapted to carry out linear movements on suitable guides and on which there is fastened a magnetic template of the magnetic drive system for the workholder nipper to effect the displacement of the workholder nipper from a sewing position to a loading position and from the loading position to the sewing position, and a loading system which includes pneumatic motor actuating blades adapted to cooperate with cylinders having stems so shaped as to clamp one side of a piece of garment stacked below the cylinders and to lift the garment to a height of the blades in order to push the fabric under the work nipper to a predetermined and well defined position.

United States Patent [1 1 Perlino 1 July 22,1975

1 1 AUTOMATIC APPARATUS FOR SEWING [73] Assignee: Necchi Societa per Azioni, Pavia,

Italy [22] Filed: Apr. 12, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 350,540

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Apr. 14, 1972 Italy 42907/72 [52] US. Cl. ll2/l21.12 [51] Int. Cl D05b 21/00 [58] Field ofSearch..... ll2/l2l.l5,l2l.l2, 121.11, ll2/l2l.29, 104; 2/247; 223/37, 38

3,776,162 l2/l973 Scholl ll2/l2l.l5

Primary ExaminerWerner H. Schroeder Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Stevens, Davis, Miller &

Mosher [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for sewing pockets on garments which includes a workholder nipper, a magnetic drive system for causing said nipper to move along a predetermined sewing contour, a double-acting pneumatic cylinder connected to a support plate adapted to carry out linear movements on suitable guides and on which there is fastened a magnetic template of the magnetic drive system for the workholder nipper to effect the displacement of the workholder nipper from a sewing position to a loading position and from the loading position to the sewing position, and a loading system which includes pneumatic motor actuating blades adapted to cooperate with cylinders having stems so shaped as to clamp one side of a piece of garment stacked below the cylinders and to lift the garment to a height of the blades in order to push the fabric under the work nipperto a predetermined and well defined position.

2 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures AUTOMATIC APPARATUS FOR SEWING POCKETS ON GARMENTS The present invention refers to an apparatus for sewing pockets on garments and particularly improvements in the system of loading the work on said apparatus. The apparatus comprises a workholder nipper and a magnetic drive system for causing said nipper to complete a predetermined sewing contour.

For the sewing of a pocket on a garment sewing units are known which are adapted automatically to effect the folding of the three sides of the piece of fabric along which the sewing is to be effected for the fastening of said pocket-forming part to the garment.

The work nipper is guided below the needle along a substantially U-shaped trajectory by drive means known in the art and described in full in Italian Pat. No. 882,752. In order to remove the sewn work from the nipper and insert a new one to be sewn, it is necessary to displace the nipper from its working position located below the head of the sewing machine to a workloading and unloading position in which there is more free space for the relative operations and for the swinging of the clamp of the nipper in order to introduce new work into same.

The displacement of the nipper towards the loading position and then towards the sewing position must be effected in the shortest time possible in order to minimize lost working time and to accomplish this presents a certain difficulty.

One known solution for this problem consists in effecting a swinging of the sewing machine so as to move the head thereof vertically away from the work nipper. This solution has the advantage of permitting the loading of the work without displacing the nipper from the sewing position, but necessarily involves the adoption of a complicated system for swinging the machine.

Another solution provides for the displacement of the nipper towards a loading position utilizing the magnetic drive system employed to impart to said nipper the displacements along the sewing contour.

This solution has the disadvantages of effecting the transfer of the nipper at the low speed specific to this system of drive and of complicating the structure of the magnetic template with a consequent increase in the cost of the apparatus. The object of the present invention is to create a simple and rapid system for effecting the displacement of the work nipper from the sewing position to the loading position and from the loading position back to the sewing position.

Another object of the invention is to provide an automatic loader for the garment on which the pocket is to be applied so as to reduce the time of loading and the fatigue of the operator.

The solution of the technical problem to be solved in order to achieve the purpose set forth is characterized by the fact that means are provided adapted to effect the displacement of said workholder nipper from a sewing position to a loading position, and vice versa, said means being independent of the said system of drive.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will be described and illustrated in the following description of a preferred embodiment and by the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a front view of the apparatus forming the object of the present invention. while FIG. 2 is a plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, I0 is the apparatus constituting the object of the present invention, which comprises a sewing machine ll fastened to the table top 12 of a supporting frame 13 and actuated by an electric motor 14 of the drive-stop type by means of a belt 15. The top 12 of the supporting frame 13 (FIG. 2) has an opening 16 within which there can move an arm 17 which at its top bears a pin 18 on which there is pivoted the workholder nipper indicated schematically by 19.

The arm 17 (FIG. 1) is fastened in known manner to a first slide 20 of a known system of orthogonal slides slidable along two superimposed parallel guides formed of two cylindrical bars 21 and 22. The upper cylindrical bar 21 is fastened to two blocks, only the front one of which, 23, is shown in the drawing, which are rigidly fastened to a second slide 24 to which at the bottom there is fastened the second cylindrical bar 22.

The second slide 24 is bushed and guided at the front on a cylindrical bar 25, while at the rear it has two pins 26, only one of which is visible in FIG. 2, each bearing a ball bearing 27 with the corresponding inner rings fastened to said pins 26. The outer rings of said bearings 27 are slidable on the upper and lower part of a second cylindrical bar 28 parallel to the first 25.

Fastened to the bottom of the first slide 20, there is provided a motor reducer 29 whose shaft 30 of magnetizable material is in contact with an electromagnetic template 31 in which there is contained the U-shaped profile of the sewing to be effected.

When the motor reducer 29 is in operation, its shaft 30 rotates along the contour of the magnetic template 31 and in known manner forces the first slide 20 and the workholder nipper l9 rigidly connected to it to pass over the same path. The magnetic template 31 (FIG. 1) is formed of two plates 32 and 33 which are superimposed and are magnetizable by means of two coils 34, only the front of which is shown, located between said plates. In the central part of the plates there are provided two grooves one above the other between which there is placed the shaft 30 of the motor reducer 29 which, the magnetic circuit between the two plates closing, is attracted against the walls of said grooves whenever the coils are excited.

The magnetic template 31 is fastened on a support block 35 mounted for displacement on two cylindrical bars 36, of which the front one is visible in FIG. 1. Bars 36 are mounted in the lower part of the support frame 13 and extend parallel to the cylindrical guide bars 25 and 28 of second slide 24.

A double-acting pneumatic cylinder 37 fastened to the end of one of the guide bars 36 by means of a block 38 has a rod 39 rigidly connected by means of a connecting bar 40 to the support block 35.

By actuation of said pneumatic cylinder 37, the support plate 35 can be displaced linearly along its own guide bars 36 and positioned in two extreme stations. This displacement is transmitted, as can be clearly noted from an examination of FIG. 1, to the workholder nipper 19 which may thus be prearranged respectively in a position remote from the head of the machine or the loading position and a position below the head of the machine or sewing position. As a matter of fact, the'movement of the support block 35 and therefore of the magnetic template 31 is transmitted, via the shaft 30, positioned in the grooves of the template, to the first slide 20 which, in its transverse movements, is made integral with the second slide 24, en-

training the latter into movement along its guide bars 25 and 28 parallel to the guide bars of the templateholder plate 35.

At the end of the stroke towards the sewing position of the template-holder block 35, the rod 39 of the cylinder 37 comes against a microswitch 41 which, when operated, permits the start of the sewing operation.

To the support frame 13 there is fastened by a bracket 42, a loader which is indicated generically by 43.

The latter is formed of a support element 44 to the upper end of which there is fastened by a nut 46 a double-acting pneumatic motor 45. The shaft of said motor 45 is connected to a block 47 which bears at the bottom a shaft 48 (FIG. 2) to the ends of which there are fastened by screws 49 two blocks 50 to which there are fastened in their turn by means of screws 51 two blades 52 which are substantially horizontal and parallel to each other and the operation of which will be described below.

To the block 47 there is also rigidly connected a shaft 53 which is substantially horizontal and parallel to the pneumatic motor 45 which, at its free end, has a stop block 54. When the pneumatic motor 45 is fed, its rod moves towards the sewing machine and carries with it the shaft 53 and the blades 52 until the stop block 54 comes into contact with the walls of the element 44.

To the upper part of said element 44 there is fastened a plate 55 which bears at its right hand end a substantially vertical pneumatic motor 56 the shaft of which is connected to a support plate 57.

To the lower part of said plate 57 there are fastened four small pneumatic cylinders indicated by 58, the stem of which is formed of three pointed rods which, emerging from the small cylinder, are adapted to nip and fasten on them a piece of garment stacked with others on a supporting frame 59 fastened to the supporting frame 13 and to the bracket 42. The said cylinders 58, which have pick-up functions, are known in the art and for this reason have not been described or illustrated in detail. To the plate 57 there is also connected a support rod 60 which terminates on top in a button 61. Near said button, there is placed a microswitch 62 supported by a plate 63 fastened to the plate 55.

Cooperating with the said loader 43 in a manner which will be described below, there is provided a support plate 64 for the garment onto which the pocket is to be sewn, which plate moves together with the movement of the nipper 19.

The operation of loading of work on the nipper takes place in the manner explained below.

At the end of the sewing of a pocket, the motor reducer 29 and thereupon the nipper 19 are stopped.

The sewing machine is also stopped with the needle at the upper dead center.

The pneumatic motor 56 at this point lowers the plate 57 with the four small cylinders 58 which are brought into contact with the layer of fabric on top of the pile located on the plane 59. The cylinders 58 are actuated to clamp with their rods the front edge of the fabric. Now the pneumatic motor 56 causes the plate 57 and the cylinders 58 to return upward and to entrain upward with them the front edge of the fabric. At the end of the stroke, the button 61 actuates the microswitch 62 which permits the next operation.

The pneumatic cylinder 37 is now automatically actuated and, as already described, moves the support block 35 towards the left and then the nipper l9 and the plate 64 towards the loader 43.

At the end of the stroke, the nipper l9 rises from the plate 64 rotating upward around the pin 18 and at the same time opens and the finished work can be unloaded.

The plate 64 which is connected for movement with the clamp 19 is borne below the cylinders 58.

There now takes place the simultaneous excitation of the pneumatic motor 45 and the de-excitation of the small cylinders 58.

The two blades 52, actuated by the pneumatic motor 45, nip the front edge of the garment on the plate 64 and push said garment, left free by the cylinders 58, under the nipper 19 in proper position to apply to it the pocket which the operator in the meantime had loaded manually onto said nipper 19.

The nipper 19, by the known pneumatic devices, folds the pocket and descends again onto the plate 64.

The double-acting pneumatic cylinder 37 is excited again and moves the plate 35 into the position shown in FIG. 1 and, through the connecting system already described, moves the nipper 19 into its working position.

At the end of its stroke, the stem 39 actuates the microswitch 41 which commences a new sewing operation.

One great operational advantage which appears from an examination of FIG. 2 consists of the fact that due to the arrangement of the nipper on the work table and the shape of the loader, it is possible to load automatically on the unit garments in which there is a substantial distance between the position of the pocket and the upper end part.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for sewing pockets on garments comprising a supporting frame, a table top fixed to said frame, a sewing machine fixed to said table top; an electric motor fixed to said frame for actuating said sewing machine, two parallel guides fixed to said frame, a slide bushed to one of said guides and slidable along the other, two blocks rigidly fastened to said slide, two superimposed parallel guides positioned orthogonally to said parallel guides the upper of which is fastened to said blocks and the lower of which is fastened to said slide, a slide positioned on and slidable along said superimposed parallel guides, a pivotable pocketholder nipper carried by said last mentioned slide, a support plate positioned on said table and movable with said nipper, a motor reducer fastened to said last mentioned slide having a shaft of magnetizable material, two parallel cylindrical bars mounted on said frame parallel to said parallel guides, a support block mounted for displacement on said bars, an electromagnetic template mounted on said support block and contactable by said magnetizable shaft, a pneumatic cylinder fixed to one end of one of said bars and connected to said support block to displace said support block and thus the pocketholder nipper and said support plate from an operative position in which the pocket is sewn on the garment to a loading position in which a new garment is loaded.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a garment loader fastened to said supporting frame and formed of a support element, a horizontally positioned 3,895,590 6 pneumatic motor fastened to said element, two blades onto said support plate under the pocketholder nipper fastened to said motor and actuated thereby horizontally, fabric lifting means attached to said element above said blades to lift a garment to a position whereby the garment may be pushed by said blades 5 to a predetermined and 'well defined position when the pocketholder nipper is in the loading position. I 

1. An apparatus for sewing pockets on garments comprising a supporting frame, a table top fixed to said frame, a sewing machine fixed to said table top; an electric motor fixed to said frame for actuating said sewing machine, two parallel guides fixed to said frame, a slide bushed to one of said guides and slidable along the other, two blocks rigidly fastened to said slide, two superimposed parallel guides positioned orthogonally to said parallel guides the upper of which is fastened to said blocks and the lower of which is fastened to said slide, a slide positioned on and slidable along said superimposed parallel guides, a pivotable pocketholder nipper carried by said last mentioned slide, a support plate positioned on said table and movable with said nipper, a motor reducer fastened to said last mentioned slide having a shaft of magnetizable material, two parallel cylindrical bars mounted on said frame parallel to said parallel guides, a support block mounted for displacement on said bars, an electromagnetic template mounted on said support block and contactable by said magnetizable shaft, a pneumatic cylinder fixed to one end of one of said bars and connected to said support block to displace said support block and thus the pocketholder nipper and said support plate from an operative position in which the pocket is sewn on the garment to a loading position in which a new garment is loaded.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a garment loader fastened to said supporting frame and formed of a support element, a horizontally positioned pneumatic motor fastened to said element, two blades fastened to said motor and actuated thereby horizontally, fabric lifting means attached to said element above said blades to lift a garment to a position whereby the garment may be pushed by said blades onto said support plate under the pocketholder nipper to a predetermined and well defined position when the pocketholder nipper is in the loading position. 